REVIEW: We Butter the Bread With Butter – “Projekt Herz” (2012)

Lately it seems that the now well-known Berlin band We Butter the Bread With Butter have become a sort of phenomenon – one with a cult following, as well. Starting out as what seemed to be some sort of joke that nobody was in on, We Butter the Bread With Butter made their name by being a band to commonly use something that is clearly either loved or hated by fans called squealing – a sound said to resemble that of a pig or, when lowered, a frog, uttering an ear splitting sound. Regardless, this seemed to stick with fans and, after their recent successful Impericon shows, the band has really hit it off in the scene and has grown, gathering a fan-base that continues to grow by the day.

To many, their initial release Das Monster aus dem Schrank was a bit of an oddity, having a very wide, chaotic, and at times confusing sound mixing together elements of death metal, grind metal, electronica and even hardcore – an odd mix to say the least, but, regardless, this album gathered in a bit of an audience, but was thrown into the shadows when the band’s second release titled Der Tag an dem die Welt unterging reared its both ugly and astoundingly beautiful head. This release was a culmination of everything the first album was going for but with more power behind it, with more skill and knowledge. It was as if between releases the band truly grasped what they could really do with the material they already had if they honed their skills and recorded a sophomore release – to make a long story short, it worked.

Once Der Tag an dem die Welt unterging debuted, the band didn’t release much of anything – leaving a bit of silence between releases, though starting to take the band in a more serious direction. What might have started out as a joke soon became the start of something amazing, as the band began to really tour, play festivals, and reach out to their growing fanbase and say to them that this is not, by any means, a joke. While the band name itself is something to laugh at, really, their growing talent and prowess are not. All of this has come together in the form of an eight track EP release, titled simply Projekt Herz. While this EP, of course, has been out for a while and this review does, in fact, come at a bit of late notice, that doesn’t by any means say that there isn’t anything to still be said about this release – in fact, there’s quite a bit to be said, but I’ll try not to keep you too long and bore you.

See, Projekt Herz really is a combination of everything that the band has done and created in the past, because it really does take all of the band’s experience and grouped ideas to make something really new. I’ve seen other people talk about this release, saying that the band either changed or sold-out – that honestly isn’t the case. The band has matured, and they decided that a re-imagining of what We Butter the Bread With Butter truly is was in order. The EP is much more mature and imaginative than past releases – while good, these releases followed a similar pattern, structure, and basic sound – a sound everyone really expected from the band. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes such a thing does get stale, but the band decided they didn’t want that – they decided to be creative, something not very many bands do these days. Instead of re-hashing the same old sound or copying some other band, they came up with their sound – an interesting one at that. All of the songs are different, I mean really – “Western Beta” is quite literally a western-metal song. Tell me, when did you think something like that would ever come from this band? Then we have the single, the song that everyone either loves or hates – USA. Some say this song was them selling-out because one section of vocals may or may not have sounded similar to those of the vocalist of Asking Alexandria and bands like them – does that really matter though? Okay, a line of vocals sounded like someone else, is that really rare? That doesn’t take away from either the song or the EP itself at all, because it continues to stay itself and both shift and evolve as time and tracks go by. Ranging from the impressive metalcore track USA to the very industrial and mentally intriguing Euphorie, this release has it all. The vocals are top-notch and at the top of the game, even though they pretty much dropped the squealing – the instrumentals are impressive and almost dream-like at times, and everything just ties in together to make something just truly amazing – and this is almost a surprise for some coming from We Butter the Bread With Butter. This EP is only the beginning, though. The band is soon coming out with a new album, titled Goldkinder – I highly suggest you get a hold of Projekt Herz in preparation, because I can guarantee you are not ready for this.